Nourishing India
‘Nourishing India’ is the cornerstone of all our Corporate Responsibility initiatives. This is a multi pronged aspirational program for Cargill India; we address the issue of malnutrition and Vitamin deficiency in India through voluntary fortification of our refined oil. India is a country of great contradictions; World’s fourth largest economy (PPP) growing at the second highest rate of growth, second largest population in the world and growing at the highest rate, one of the youngest populations in the world.
Paradoxically, a quarter of the worlds hungry people live in India ~ 230 million, child malnutrition rate in India is worse than many sub-Saharan countries, WHO estimates that ~ 2.5 million children in India die every single year due to malnutrition, China has only ~ 7% of its children under 5 years underweight, India has this number alarmingly high at 42.5%. Taking cognizance of this menace, we decided to fortify our refined leveraging the fact that in India Oil has ~ 99% penetration into the household and fortification has been one of the best ways to carry the micronutrient to the masses.
We took the lead in fortifying all our refined oils with Vitamins A, D and E. this fortification is based on a very scientific approach by adding Vitamin A-2500 IU/100 gms of oil, Vitamin D- 200 IU/100 gms of oil, Vitamin E -2.273 IU/100 gms of oil catering to 40% RDA of Vitamin A, 16% RDA of Vitamin D and 5% RDA of Vitamin E. We reach ~ 25 million people of India through this program. We support the leading NGO Akshaya Patra in their school feeding initiatives, we engage with our global partners Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) for policy advocacy with the central and state governments to encourage usage of fortified food, with other NGO partners to reach to the last mile with the benefits of fortification at no extra cost. We also play leadership role in establishing the India Food Banking Network (IFBN) to bring the nourishment to rural and underdeveloped parts of the country.
